Enter Slide 4 Title

Enter Slide 5 Title

Enter Slide 6 Title

Enter Slide 7 Title

Enter Slide 8 Title

Enter Slide 9 Title

Saturday, April 07, 2012

I pity the guys who brought the
brand in the Philippines. I pity the
guys that thought of every media avenue to promote Magnum. Magnum is an advertising nightmare because their marketing
team took the product to every possible medium… and it backfired on them.

Selecta is one of the most
popular ice cream makers in the country – rivaling with just Magnolia for that distinction. They
basically have head-to-head battles with Magnolia in terms of flavors and
budget ice creams. However Selecta has one key edge over Magnolia – they have
an awesome advertising arm that pretty much helped their products gain
nationwide recognition.

Whoever made that Vhong Navarro song “3 for 1 plus 1”
must be commended. And until Sef
Cadayona actually shells out money to rid himself of those 20-peso
predictments, Selecta Cornetto will
continue to rule every student, call center agent, or some kid near a
convenience store.

Now Magnum is another story.
With a look as a grand brand, it veered away from the novelty tunes and the
funny scenarios. They introduced the product as ice cream royalty and they are
likely targeting the students and the yuppies that are sick of drinking the
same coffee and fruit shake shops in the metro.

They also tried to push it in
all avenues – heavily promoting the product in Facebook and Twitter weeks even before its launch. Aside from the ad
placements on TV, radio, print, and billboards, Magnum perfectly used a
magazine tie-up. If you check out the April
2012 issue of Rogue Magazine, we can see Solenn Heussaff wearing a gown that looks like rich and thick
chocolate. If you download the mag on your tablets, you can see that Solenn
looks as if she’s floating in chocolate goodness.

I tried the chocolate truffle
flavor when Cindy thought it was a
good idea to tryout the heavily-hyped brand instead of our usual Starbucks experience. She went with the
classic flavor and contrary to my initial thoughts, I enjoyed the brand. The
chocolate is not that sweet and the coating is strong that it doesn’t drip. I
think that this is like… if you need to perfectly make the typical 25-peso ice cream
bars, this is what you’ll come up with.

Even so though, Magnum is just
an ice cream.

Paying 55 pesos (it started out
as 60) for a measly ice cream stick where financial woes run rampant is not a
good idea – especially if everyone thinks that the brand is just an overprized
pinipig bar. And to top it all, while it’s tolerable especially in summer, it’s
like a usual ice cream bar. Given that Magnum is an international brand that
Selecta brought here that has Rachel Bilson as endorser… and even if the price
of the brand reasonably inexpensive unlike in other countries.

Half-Filipina Rachel Bilson of The O.C. and Heart of Dixie fame.

Magnum just doesn’t stand out.

All of a sudden, the ever-so-harsh
online critics bombarded Magnum with extreme criticism. Not even the summer
heat would sway other people from buying the product again.

Here are some of the innovative
insults that spawned in the internet.

The sobrang Pinoy version of Magnum

The Zoolander version of Magnum.

It sucks for the rest of those
think-tanks but I wonder how people will react once the brand re-launches with
a seriously scratched off price?